From Dragon Boat Racing to Mountain Climbing

Besides all the usual stuff like teaching, tennis, cooking, cleaning, etc., four pretty cool things happened this past week. At least a third of my students entered the Kaohsiung City Dragon Boat Races and won in their class. They had been training for six weeks. I watched their race on the Love River each of the three nights. They raced three other dragon boats, provided by the City, each manned by a 20 member male crew plus 2 female drummers to keep the beat, plus an experienced helmsman provided by the festival organizers. I claimed full credit for their victory as I taught them all about successful teamwork in my classes!

The second cool thing that happened was that a typhoon hit the Taiwan Strait this week (and not our campus or our island) and that meant that the surf was up at the campus beach: 1/2 meter crests with shoulders and the beginning of a curl. I was in heaven. As the only one riding waves, I drew an audience on shore and even a couple of locals came out for some lessons. What fun, but the next day the surf sucked again!

Thirdly, on Sunday morning three of my students and I climbed the mountain behind the dormitory. It was much harder than expected as we had to use ropes to go up and down sections

over the coral rock. My students were very kind to me and made sure I didn't lag too far back. After our 8:00 a.m. climb, we all came back to my villa for a hearty Maine breakfast of orange juice, sausages, and blueberry (unfortunately not Maine's) pancakes topped by melting butter and maple syrup (again, unfortunately not Maine's). Great time and even wore shirt from Boothbay saying "Old Men Rule".

Lastly, I was asked to speak at the local church English service at 4:00 p.m. yesterday. Little did they know what they were getting into. Unlike our contextual Bible Study methods used at the Congregational Church, they study the Bible thematically focusing on new testament verses that relate to the theme for the day. I like the thematic approach less because you can pull out verses that you like to support whatever point the author is trying to make. Anyway, I tried to take their theme of "The Living of a Serving One: A Life Hidden with Christ in God" and suggested that three verses from the Old Testament the author didn't cite might additionally help understand the theme. I pointed to Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might" and Leviticus 19:18 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" as two ways to be a serving one (and of course Jesus' answer to what is the greatest commandment). And I pointed to Micah 6:8 "And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" as helpful to understanding a hidden life. They thought my comments were interesting!

PS An update on my war. One more dead cockroach found this week and a little more poison

down the drains. Stopped another ant invasion. No more lizard poop as I knocked out the source with my trusty broom. And my enemies brought in reinforcements (see picture of the two inch help just for Michelle's pleasure).